{"id":546661,"date":"2026-03-19T11:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/546661\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:43:19","slug":"cubas-president-lashes-out-at-trumps-threats-to-take-the-island-as-regional-support-weakens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/546661\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba’s president lashes out at Trump’s threats to take the island as regional support weakens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel lashed out after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could do “whatever he wants” with the Caribbean island and that Washington could take “imminent action” against it.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz-Canel said on X that the Trump administration “publicly threatens” Cuba’s government almost daily with overthrowing it, and any act of aggression “will clash with an impregnable resistance.”<\/p>\n

The comments came after new threats by Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Cuba’s socialist economic model needs to “change dramatically.” The same day, another Latin American country denounced D\u00edaz-Canel’s government and said it would close its embassy. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Trump threatens to take Cuba:\"\"<\/p>\n

Trump expects to have the ‘honour’ of taking Cuba<\/p>\n

Calling Cuba a ‘failed nation’ with a ‘nice landscape,’ U.S. President \u200cDonald Trump said Monday that \u2060he thinks \u200che will have the ‘honour’ of \u2060taking \u2060Cuba, adding he could do anything he wants with it.Trump wants D\u00edaz-Canel out<\/p>\n

While the Cuban government places heavy restrictions on the country’s private sector, decades of U.S. sanctions have crippled Cuba’s economy.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration wants D\u00edaz-Canel to leave as the U.S. continues negotiating with the Cuban government, according to a U.S. official and a source familiar with the talks between Washington and Havana. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to the discuss sensitive talks.<\/p>\n

No details were offered about whom the administration might like to see in power.<\/p>\n

Cuban journalist Daniel Montero told CBC Radio’s As It Happens<\/a> Wednesday that while black-outs in Cuba are nothing new, the U.S.’s oil blockade is making conditions far worse. <\/p>\n

“The agenda that the United States has with this is to create conditions that are horrible enough on the island that people will rise up against the government,” he said from Havana. <\/p>\n

“That’s always been what sanctions are about. It’s regime change through starvation.”<\/p>\n

WATCH | Can Cuba’s government survive?:\"\"<\/p>\n

With U.S. pressure mounting, can Cuba’s government survive?<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against Cuba on Tuesday, saying ‘I think I can do anything I want’ with the country as it tries to recover from the collapse of its national electric grid on Monday. Sebastian A. Arcos, the interim director of the FIU Cuban Research Institute, discusses whether this is the end of the road for Cuba’s government. <\/p>\n

Trump’s comments on Cuba came more than two months after his administration’s military raid that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> in January, and a few weeks after the launch of joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

The administration has effectively halted vital oil exports to Cuba, pushing the Caribbean nation to the brink. The Cuban people that Trump and Rubio say they want to help have been left reeling.<\/p>\n

Cuban doctor, Jesus Garcia, 62, cast doubt on the idea that the Trump administration would remove D\u00edaz-Canel from power or intervene in Cuba, rolling his eyes at Trump’s comments.<\/p>\n

“Americans can say whatever they want. The ones who decide what is done here in Cuba are the Cuban people,” Garcia said. <\/p>\n

Maria del Carmen Companioni, 51, said in the face of a political back and forth between the two governments, regular Cubans like her are left struggling with the soaring prices and no clear pathway forward.<\/p>\n

“Really, all of this has people very alarmed and in a bad state. No one knows what is going to happen,” she said. <\/p>\n

Costa Rica closes embassy<\/p>\n

Also Wednesday, Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves said his administration did not recognize Cuba’s government as legitimate and would close the Cuban embassy in its \u200ccapital San Jose.<\/p>\n

“Costa Rica does not recognize the legitimacy of Cuba’s Communist regime, given the mistreatment, repression, and undignified conditions endured by the inhabitants of that beautiful island,” Chaves said at an event attended by \u200bthe U.S. ambassador.<\/p>\n

“We must cleanse the hemisphere of Communists,” \u200bChaves said.<\/p>\n

The Cuban government sharply criticized Costa Rica’s move, calling it an “arbitrary decision” made under pressure by the U.S. in an effort to isolate the island. <\/p>\n

“The \u2060Costa Rican government, which displays a history of subordination to United States policy against Cuba, once again joins the offensive by the U.S. government in its renewed attempts to isolate our country,” Cuba’s foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"ManCosta Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves, seen here in February, said Wednesday his country does not recognize Cuba’s government as legitimate and would close its Cuban embassy. (Mayela Lopez\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Ecuador also closed its Cuban embassy<\/a>, after declaring Cuban \u200cAmbassador Basilio Gutierrez and his diplomatic staff “persona non grata.”<\/p>\n

Ecuador’s and Costa Rica’s presidents were among a raft of right-wing-aligned Latin American presidents to attend an anti-crime summit Trump hosted in Florida this month, known as “Shield of the Americas.” <\/p>\n

Costa \u200bRica’s announcement comes as a slate of countries in Central America and the Caribbean announced they will \u2060end agreements to hire Cuban medics in their countries \u2014 an important source of foreign income \u2060for the Cuban government and a source of medical services in often under-served rural communities.<\/p>\n

The \u2060U.S. \u2060had accused the program of \u200bexploiting its workers and threatened sanctions on officials from countries that take in Cuban workers.<\/p>\n

Cuba has \u200bfaced a longstanding U.S. \u2060economic embargo, which its government blames for its economic crisis that has prompted more than one million people to leave the island. <\/p>\n

Most countries globally oppose the embargo, but in October, Argentina and Paraguay joined a handful of countries in shifting their support to the United States \u2060in a United Nations vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-546661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}